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User blog:Raffney/Timetravel in 40k OR is the Emperor a Chaos God?
"You forget; our bodies are mere tombs for the true nature of our spirits. And once one has had a taste of freedom, there's no telling what forces they may unleash." -- Nelri Scholar The mysterious beeing called "Emperor of Man" is the immortal leader of the entirety of mankind and their galaxy spanning imperium in warhammer 40k. He is one of the most central figures in all of warhammer and his doing impacted the universe in such an extensive way that it's kinda hard to talk about anything inside 40k without mentioning him. The warhammer lore is constantly growing in size but some important topics are still pretty unclear. One of this said topics is the Emperor of Man himself. Although his origins and intentions are still mostly in the dark (likely through intention by GW) going by the facts we have it's possible to theorise a little into what some that really means. But first a little recap about his Origin. Origin of the Emperor Like any normal human beeing the emperor started as a child in the earliest of human history on earth. What exactly happened isn't really verified but the most commonly exepted theory is that the emperors birth is the result of the doings of the earliest shamans in human history. (Another theory involves the doings of the old ones but let's stay with the shaman story here.) In a time in which Chaos wasn't really a thing (from the perspective of reality at least) the emperor was born. He was likely born like any child. One of the strongest characters traits of him has always been his strong connection to the human race. Over the millennia he gathered immense wisdom while leading and directing humanity from the shadows. At some point however he foresaw the end of humanity in the relatively near future and concluded that if this would not counteracted immediately and effectivly it would lead to certain extinction. It's important to notice that it's never exactly stated what he foresaw. Only the extinction part is certain here. So he started immediately and took all his gathered wisdom and knowledge from over the millennia into action. In his mind the most effective way to counteract human extinction would lastly require him to step into the open by revealing his presence to all of humanity. In doing so he could act way more directly and greatly quicken up the development which was a necessary step to strengthen any further advance. Taking control would on the other hand mean he must assume the role of an autocrat. A role that can easily misunderstood considering the fact that any means of power tend to corrupt. Especially in the eyes of the people. To counteract that topic he implemented the role of the savier of humankind, humanities greatest Champion. To many even a god. Efficiency was almost certainly the main objective at the time, even so much so that he was willing to focus on the bigger picture more than anything else. Suggesting that any error in a galaxy spanning plot could lead to immense consequences. He was willing to sacrifice much of his "humanity" in the process to minimize the probability of that. One of the biggest sacrifices was the case of the thunder warriors after the unification of earth. Newer lore even indicates that a similiar intention was planned for the primarchs after the unification of the galaxy. It perfectly serves a "by the book" rise to power. Any leader must ensure the loyalty of the elements which helped him to get to the top because they are always the ones that also can take you down. If the loyaltiy can't be ensured it's important get rid of them. These step against the thunder warriors (and possible later against the primarchs(or some of them) were only meant to ensure the initial goal of his actions. Taking control. The very next step would be to ensure that human extinction is averted. But as we all know by now the emperors plans were altered by the chaos gods via using his own tools for taking control over the galaxy, the primarchs. Vision of the future The extinction of the human race the emperor foresaw in his initial vision i believe would not be caused only by Chaos but instead by the many threats the near future held. With so many threats closing in on humanity till 40.000 he had to do something before it's to late. Chaos was just one of many potential threats. That would explain why Chaos for him at that point were not the main objective. He of course knew of Chaos and he also knew it posed a threat. That is the reason why he implemented the imperial thruth. The emperor was about to fight any foe that could lead to human extinction. That is why he started the great crusade after all. The orks were another big threat, a more obvious one at the time. Chaos would be starved to death and later in time the imperium would be ready to face anything the future held (Necrons and Tyranids for example). The emperor planned for anything here but he greatly underestimated Chaos. I'm sure he did not really knew that Chaos since the fall of the eldar had regrown in such a serious manner and evolved in strategies and tactics. Much like the emperor himself the Chaos Gods took action to ensure their survival and the seed of heresy took root in the imperium. It's pretty likely that they somehow played innocent enough to be underestimated by the emperor considering the later events. Chaos always used the truth to lie about things. So it lured the Primarchs into thinking that the Emperor would betray them and i'm sure he actually had that intention more or less but in a way of testing them. Not like the thunder warriors before but more in a battle of loyalty. That intention of the Emperor was recognized by Chaos and perverted to serve their own goals. But Chaos also underestimated the Emperor. While the outcome of the heresy greatly supported their intentions of survival and corruption it simultaneously and ironically created their strongest opponent in all of the galaxy. While bound on the golden throne for over tenthousand years the imperium of man had evolved in a state with the emperor as their savior and god in the middle. Billions over billions of willing believer strongly believe in one single saviour. Millions of temples and statures are spread over the entire galaxy to support his power. And as much as Chaos temples support the Chaos Gods does a temple of the emperor support him. Time, Warp and Gods So let's say the mortal shell on the golden throne is in fact the only thing at the moment stopping him from evolving fully into a warp god. Not exactly the same kind of thing like the Chaos Gods (cause he seems really to corrupt) but in many ways similiar. It's even possible that his powers could drastically extend should he fully assume the role of a warp beeing considering the way how Slaanesh was "born". Now the interesting part about that is that the time he was born is only specified by the point of view of reality. Assuming he would really become a warp god some time in the future his powers as such beeing could very well travel back in time and effect events and beeings in the past. If that were true it would actually solve a lot of mysteries in the lore. For example it would explain were his seemingly limitless warp abilities are coming from and why Chaos isn't able to corrupt him. It would even explain why his divine 40k powers could summoned back in early 30k. It would also explain how he knew about the timeline and simultaneously doesn't know about it. There we have it. My little theory on the emperor as a Chaos god! Like to hear your thoughts! Category:Blog posts